Bankruptcy trustees get first pay raise in 31 years.
S. 3424 — Bankruptcy Administration Improvement Act of 2025 · Filed by Christopher Coons (D-DE) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Dec 10, 2025 · Signed
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This law doubles what Chapter 7 trustees earn per case. Pay goes from $60 to $120. It extends temporary bankruptcy judge jobs from 5 to 10 years. The law reshuffles how bankruptcy fees are split. Courts can still waive fees for people who cannot pay.
Who it affects
Chapter 7 trustees handle bankrupt people's assets and pay creditors. The law does not raise filing fees for people filing for bankruptcy.
One thing to notice
Trustees earn more money, which may make them work harder. The law uses only existing fees to pay for this.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Dec 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Dec 10, 2025 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed/agreed to in Senate: Introduced in the Senate, read twice, considered, read the third time, and passed…”
- Jan 12, 2026 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H627)”
- Jan 12, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Cline moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
- Feb 3, 2026 — Sent to president · Congress.gov: “Presented to President”
- Feb 6, 2026 — Signed into law · Congress.gov: “Became Public Law No: 119-76”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $20,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 4 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Christopher Coons, who sponsored the bill, received $1,362,800 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees — $20,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- Chapter 7 trustees — People hired to sell a bankrupt person's property and pay creditors.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (8,905 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 19, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-18.
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